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Chapter 32: Charismatic Idiot
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It was a single, segmented mechanical tentacle, over seven feet long.
The inspiration was clear: the future work of Doctor Otto Octavius. Adam was building his own set of appendages.
He worked on the tentacle with a jeweler's focus. Each segment was a masterpiece of alloyed metals and articulated hydraulics.
He laser-etched minute cooling channels into the inner casing, then used the bonding tool to seal a flexible polymer sheath over them.
The tentacle was designed with multiple points of articulation, powered by micro-motors at each joint and a larger, primary motor at the base.
The tips were equipped with a variety of interfaces; a powerful pincer, a plasma cutter, a data probe; all modular and interchangeable.
[DOCTOR OCTOPUS VIBES! He's building his own arms!]
[The level of detail is insane.]
[I always thought Doc Oct's arms were so cool! But no one else uses them.]
[True, they have so much potential, I think.]
After hours of meticulous work, it was time for the first integration test.
He took off his work helmet and stripped off his shirt, revealing a torso that was a roadmap of suffering.
The silvery scars from Hydra's surgeries were now joined by the newer, angrier marks left by Magneto's metal manipulation.
He pulled on an insulated long-sleeved shirt and gloves; a "just in case" precaution against electrical feedback or superheated metal.
Then, he donned the centerpiece: the Heart.
It was a chest harness of reinforced titanium, shaped in a sharp 'V' on the front.
It housed a compact but powerful battery pack and a sophisticated cooling system.
On the back were six heavy-duty attachment ports, waiting for their limbs.
For now, only one port would be filled.
The single tentacle was too heavy and ungainly for him to attach himself.
He sat on the floor and used two mechanical arms to carefully lift it and lock it into the upper-left port.
A solid clunk and a soft hydraulic hiss confirmed the connection. He felt the weight settle against his back, a significant but manageable burden.
"Alice, initiate test sequence Alpha. Monitor power draw, joint stress, and neural feedback," He commanded.
"Initializing, Master," The AI's gentle voice responded.
He closed his eyes, extending his Cyberpathy into the new limb. It was like flexing a phantom muscle.
The tentacle stirred, its segments unfolding with a series of soft whirs and clicks.
He willed it to rise, and it did, snaking through the air above him.
He tested its range, its grip strength with the pincer attachment, and the fine motor control by having it pick up a delicate microchip from a nearby tray.
"Power draw is 12% above projections on lateral movement," Alice reported. "Joint 4 is showing slight resistance at 45-degree flexion."
"Noted. Compensate with a 5% power increase to the lateral servo and log the joint resistance for material analysis."
Adam replied, his voice a calm monotone as he continued to move the tentacle.
He can achieve and understand all the AI said through Cyberpathy, but he wasn't just testing the arm; he was also testing Alice. Never a time wasted.
He was optimizing his time so much that he was also writing lines of code in the "Pulse" app on a nearby screen with his other mental partition.
The tentacle was clumsy, the feedback laggy, and the weight distribution was off with only one arm, but it worked.
After an hour of rigorous testing, he had the mechanical arms detach the limb.
He stood, removing the Heart harness, a jubilant smile breaking through his exhaustion.
Sparks of exhilaration coursed through him.
This feeling, the act of bringing a complex vision to life, was the second greatest high he'd ever experienced, surpassed only by the chaotic triumph over Magneto.
[The pure joy of creation! You love to see it!]
[He's like a kid who just built the coolest Lego set ever. Ahh, I remember those times.]
[This is his true superpower: the ability to become obsessed and brilliant at the same time.]
He immediately dove back in, disassembling the tentacle to address the logged issues. Sparks flew as he modified the joint housing.
A wave of dizziness washed over him, which he attributed to simple exhaustion, but the siren song of the work was too strong to heed.
His trance was broken by Alice's voice. "Master, Domino is at the door. She wishes to check on you."
"Grant her access," He said, not looking up from the micro-welder.
Domino entered the transformed space. The bunker was now a temple of technology, with workbenches covered in tools, parts bins meticulously labeled, and half-built drones and devices lining the shelves.
Her eyes were drawn to the bank of computer monitors, where multiple programming environments were open.
One, titled Pulse, was filled with code that scrolled and updated at a dizzying pace.
She assumed it was his AI, but the truth was far stranger, as hinted before.
It was Adam himself, using his partitioned consciousness to code simultaneously on multiple projects.
The most notable are, Pulse, his version of TikTok. Oracle, his version of ChatGPT. Flow, his version of Instagram. Messenger, his version of WhatsApp, and Skyvault, his version of cloud storage.
All are concepts that have yet to be created here, or are still merely small projects.
[He's creating a whole tech empire from his basement!]
[This is how you get rich in a new world: steal all the best ideas from the old one.]
[Why hasn't the TVA shown up? Is he not a big enough deviation? Or are they scared?]
[And why hasn't the Ancient One appeared? Wouldn't she have noticed something odd about him?]
[It's a reincarnation story, which is unheard of in Marvel. Sure, there are some who reincarnate in Marvel, but he knows the plot; he came from the origin world.]
[It's a strange conundrum. I didn't think I would like the concept for Marvel, but... Now, I'm intrigued.]
He was leveraging his future knowledge cautiously, using different names to avoid drawing the attention of temporal guardians like the TVA or Kang the Conqueror.
His very existence was a question mark on the timeline, and until he understood the rules, he would move carefully.
But he would not stop.
He would use every tool, every idea, every stolen spark of genius to climb towards becoming Absolute.
Domino watched the frenetic, multi-armed activity for a moment before speaking. "You okay in here? You usually never miss a meal."
Her eyes scanned the collection of empty water bottles by his station. A suspicion dawned on her. "Adam… have you eaten anything in the last three days?"
She had thought he brought food in with him before locking himself in here, but it seems not.
That finally made him pause. He looked up, his movements halting. "Three days?" he muttered, his voice distant. "Has it been three days?"
As he turned, the harsh workshop lights revealed the deep, dark circles etched beneath his eyes, visible even through his helmet's visor.
Domino's casual demeanor vanished. "Have you slept at all?" She demanded, striding toward him.
"Sleep?" Adam raised a brow, a dry chuckle escaping his lips. "I forgot."
[HE FORGOT TO SLEEP FOR THREE DAYS! Like, WHAT?]
[Lol, I forgot to sleep for three days.]
[I stay awake three hours more than usual, and I feel like I would need a nuclear reactor to keep me going, how?]
[Peak ADHD hyperfocus.]
[No, it's peak OCD!]
[Domino's face right now is all of us.]
He took off his helmet, running a hand through his white hair. "I've squandered my body," He complained, more to himself than to her. "I worked so hard to train it, only to malnourish it... That's bad, I guess."
The thought of food, which he genuinely loved, was a sudden, sharp craving.
He had been so fixated, his OCD latching onto the engineering problems, that he had simply ignored all biological imperatives.
The dizziness was bad, but the unfinished work on the table was a powerful lure. Aghh, he wanted to continue so bad, he was so close to reaching peak!!
Seeing his hesitation, Domino snapped. She snatched the helmet from his hand and tossed it onto a padded bench.
"That's it," She declared, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the workbench with surprising strength.
"Hey!"
"No," She cut him off, herding him out of the workshop and down the hall to his bedroom.
She pushed him onto the bed, her frustration palpable. "Lie down. Now I get why Jean was always so stressed. You are so fucking frustrating."
She stormed off to the kitchen and returned with a glass of orange juice and a bowl of sliced fruit. "Eat this. Your stomach can't handle anything heavier right now."
For once, Adam didn't argue. He knew she was right. He ate the fruit mechanically, his mind already drifting back to the torque calculations for the tentacle's primary motor.
I love food, he thought, but sleep… such a pointless, time-wasting biological flaw. I wish I could delete it.
Only when he had finished the food and his breathing had evened out in sleep did Domino let out a long, weary sigh.
She looked down at the sleeping genius, his face finally relaxed.
What a headache, she thought. He's a thousand-year-old monster in one moment, a careless child in the next, with the determination of something that's seen the end of universes.
She wondered why she, another broken soul just trying to find her own fun path, felt compelled to try and fix someone so profoundly shattered.
It felt hopeless, like trying to bail out the ocean with a thimble. Worse, his relentless drive was infectious.
Watching him, she felt the urge to be more, to do more.
She let out a soft "Tch" of annoyance, a small smile touching her lips despite herself, "Charismatic idiot, so annoying."
She complained, realizing that he wasn't even trying, yet still succeeding in bringing her to his side... Well, he's already succeeded.
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